Background

1.ASEAN and the European Community (EC), the predecessor of the EU, have maintained cooperation and relations since 1972 through the Special Coordinating Committee on ASEAN (SCCAN) and the ASEAN Brussels Committee (ABC). The first informal meeting between EEC Commission and ASEAN Economic Ministers was held in Brussels on 16 June 1972 to look into collaborative endeavors between the two regions. The third informal meeting between ASEAN and the EEC Commission which took place on 24-25 September 1974 in Jakarta, agreed to set up the ASEAN-EEC Joint Study Group (JSG) to further develop and intensify cooperation and relations.

2.The ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations were formalized when the 10th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) held on 5-8 July 1977 agreed on ASEAN’s formal cooperation and relationship with the European Economic Community (EEC), which includes the Council of Ministers of the EEC, the Permanent Representative of the EEC countries and the EEC Commission.

3.The relationship between the two regions took an important step forward when Dr. Hildegard Hamm Brucher, the German State Minister for Foreign Affairs, visited Thailand on 18-22 November 1977, and proposed to ASEAN through the then Thai Foreign Minister and Chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee, H.E Dr. Upadit Pancharityangkun, that linkage and regular contact between ASEAN and the EEC be raised to the ministerial level. The proposal received positive consideration of ASEAN and led to the convening of the First ASEAN-EEC Ministerial Meeting, which was held in Brussels on 21 November 1978.

4.The ASEAN-EU Dialogue Relations were institutionalized with the signing of the ASEAN-EEC Cooperation Agreement on 7 March 1980, and have since become an important partner for ASEAN’s growth and progress. The dialogue relations have rapidly grown and expanded to cover a wide range of areas including political and security, economic and trade, social and cultural, and development cooperation. 

Political and Security Cooperation 

3.Over the years, the EU has been actively involved in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and has co-chaired a number of Inter-Sessional Meetings (ISMs) on CBMs including a Conference on Preventive Diplomacy. The regular ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM) and the EU’s participation at the annual ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMCs) contribute immensely to greater dialogue and exchange of views on key regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.

4.The adoption of the ASEAN-EU Joint Declaration on Terrorism in 2003 represents the continued commitment of both sides to closely engage each other in responding to the challenge of international terrorism and contribute to international efforts to fight terrorism. Following the first ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC)-EU Consultation held in June 2003, the EU mission on the field of counter-terrorism undertook an assessment mission in ASEAN to explore and identify possible areas of cooperation between ASEAN and the EU. Border management and document security have been identified as priority areas for ASEAN-EC cooperation on counter-terrorism. 

5.A New Partnership with Southeast Asia, which was issued by the EC in July 2003 and the EU’s readiness to accede to the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia reflected a firm commitment of the EU in supporting ASEAN to promote peace, security and prosperity in the region. 

Economic Cooperation

6.The EU is a major trading partner and investment source to ASEAN. For the last two decades, despite the economic ups and downs of the ASEAN region, EU remained one of the top three destinations for ASEAN exports and an important source for investment to many ASEAN economies. ASEAN exports to the European Union accounts for an average of 15% of total ASEAN exports. In 2005, ASEAN has become the EU’s 6th largest trading partner. ASEAN imports from the EU accounts for about 12-13% of the total ASEAN imports. The share of EU FDI flows to total FDI flows to ASEAN is about 25%. 

7.While EU is one of the top three trading and investment partners for ASEAN, there is much potential and room to improve the linkages. Statistics from the EU showed that the EU’s trade with ASEAN only constitutes about 5% of total EU external trade. More than 50% of total EU FDI flows back to the EU region itself. EU FDI to ASEAN is still less than 5% of the total EU FDI outflows. 

8.In order to promote trade and investment flows between the two regions, ASEAN and the EU had agreed on TREATI (Trans-Regional ASEAN-EU Trade Initiatives), a policy dialogue process, which will include technical assistance measures and will lay the foundation or groundwork for the development of a genuine FTA between ASEAN and the EU in the future. 

9.Pursuant to the agreement on TREATI, various activities have been undertaken during 2004-2006 which include among others, workshops and consultations among the EU and ASEAN officials and business representatives on subject matters covering trade facilitation, investment, food safety, and SPS. While the EU is currently identifying priority areas to be included under the TREATI, ASEAN wishes to emphasis the TREATI more on areas such as customs integration, other trade facilitation, service areas, and ASEAN’s integration sectors. ASEAN also would take more active role in the preparation and the implementation of TREATI’s activities. 

10. Senior Officials Dialogue on Economic Integration and Experts Dialogues on areas to be covered by the FTA negotiations will also be included in activities to be implemented under 2007 work programme of the TREATI framework. Special Treatments and status will also be given to newer members of ASEAN during the ASEAN-EU FTA negotiations. 

Functional and Development Cooperation

11.READI (Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument) has been introduced as a policy dialogue process for promoting ASEAN-EU dialogue relations in non-trade areas. Following its endorsement by the 15th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM), the ASEAN-EC Informal Coordinating Mechanism (ICM) held in June 2005 in Bali agreed on the implementation modalities and mechanism of the READI. The ICM also agreed that under the READI, both sides will initiate cooperation in the areas of information society, animal health, and climate change, transport, communicable diseases and other priority areas which will be agreed by both sides. 

12.Following the introduction of READI, ASEAN and the EC organizsed the ASEAN-EC consultations on trafficking in persons in June 2006 to identify practical areas of cooperation. Currently, a numbers of sectoral experts/sectors consultations, such as ICT, Energy Transport and Climate change are being arranged. 

13.Under the ASEAN-EC cooperation framework, there are a number of programmes, with a total budget of more than 80 million Euros, in various areas of cooperation, namely standards, quality and conformity assessment, intellectual property rights, energy, environment, strengthening capacity-building, and higher education. Currently, ASEAN and the EC are in the process of implementing the EC-ASEAN Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) for 2005-2006. The RIP with a total budget of 20 million Euros will focus on capacity building (ASEAN-EU Programme for Regional Integration Support — APRIS II), counter-terrorism (EU-ASEAN Programme on Border Management and Document Security), ASEAN-EU Cooperation on statistics, and the “New Partnership” Information and Communication Programme (ASEAN-EU Visibility Programme). The programmes under the RIP are now at various stages of implementation.